I am staying in an Airbnb. Accommodation across Addis seemed to vary enormously, with price and quality not appearing to match up at all, as far as I could tell from the UK.

Therefore, I felt lucky when I hit upon a cheap but nice looking private bed and bathroom with a shared kitchen and courtyard in a little apartment block.

When I arrived I discovered that whilst it was not as swish as the photo (which is what I expected after 7 years of renting in London), it really wasn’t bad and the courtyard was lovely, with lots of flowers and plants around the edge. The kitchen left a lot to be desired, both in cleanliness and quantity and quality of utensils! The kettle is terrifying – a metal on the hob type with the handle split in two across the middle, and no oven gloves! Two tiny pieces of mucky rag are all that saves you from blistered fingers! However, some of the ladies in the accommodation have taken pity on me due to my fear of the kettle, and have assisted me with the stressful bit of pouring my tea.

There were a couple of skirmishes in the courtyard at the end of last week. The first night I heard a man yelling that someone had to ‘get out, get out of my room NOW!’ and was informed the next day by my gossip source (an Ethiopian refugee who lived in Boston) that the man in room 9 had a prostitute over and then had a tremendous argument with her about the price. She only left when he threatened to ‘chop her into little pieces’. Then the next day I heard a lot of roaring. It sounded like there was a lion loose! My gossip source told me that it was the prostitute hiring man roaring in his bedroom. God knows why! He did it all day. I heard on the apartment grapevine he ‘does weights’ but I do not think this is a very good excuse!

The final straw (largely for the apartment staff who get lumbered with the problems) was when he same roaring, prostitute hiring man came back in a taxi, drunk at 8am and somehow managed to escalate a row about a taxi fare into hitting the guard with a stick! It was all very tense. Everyone was coming out of their rooms to see what was going on. I peeled out of my bedroom window. Thankfully, the roaring man apologised and left the apartment block for good. I think he probably got kicked out. I’m very glad that all the weirdness was from one man, otherwise I would have moved out by now!

The only interest in the last few days Re: accommodation is that ‘you do have hot water in your shower madam, you just have to run it very slowly’. Hmmm. It’s not even my idea of hot water when it’s run at a dribble!